"Cross-chording" is a term used to describe when a player "crosses over" and takes notes from a different set of bass buttons to get chords and textures that are not native to the tuning system. For example, G/C instruments are not furnished with a button for playing the G7 chord, only G major. But the G7 chord can be played by crossing over and borrowing the adjacent F note while still holding the G chord.

If you are frustrated by the limited choice of notes and chords in the left hand of your accordion, I recommend reading his post. The information isn't limited to D/G instruments - the principle holds true for all instruments with rows that are a 4th apart (G/C, A/D, B/E, C/F, etc.). Simply transpose the notes and chords by the appropriate interval to fit your tuning system.

The rest of Bellows and Strings is filled with more useful information and enjoyable reading, so be sure to browse around for a while.

2 comments:

I've read the blog that you provided and it is really useful for amateurs in cross chording. Just last week, I watched some tutorial videos for cross-chording and I felt the challenge while following it. For you to be able to master cross-chording, you need a lot of patience and practice.

Glad that was so helpful. His blog has a lot of good instructional material. Re: cross-chording, it's not the technique you'd use for every tune but I find it is always helpful to have another tool in the drawer -- even if you don't use it often, when you need that particular tool, there are few substitutes.